Mailing List Archive

Camera insurance for conference attendees
For folks going to Wikimania or other conferences, I recommend looking into
camera insurance that insures you for loss against theft in particular. I
realize that most of us don't have $5,000 in camera gear, but even a $1,000
loss would be a big deal for some of us, and I'm aware of an incident of
camera equipment being stolen after a previous Wikimedia conference. A
mid-range camera and lens combined can easily cost over $1,000. You may be
able to purchase camera insurance as an extension of your homeowners' or
renters' insurance, which I was able to do at a surprisingly low cost. I'd
encourage others to look into this, particularly those planning to travel
to Wikimania or other conferences.

One big limitation: if a camera is used for commercial purposes, you may
need commercial camera insurance, which seems to be significantly more
expensive than insurance that you might be able to add to your homeowners'
or renters' policy if you use your camera only for noncommercial purposes.
My understanding is that cameras which are owned by affiliate organizations
would need commercial insurance, although affiliates may still decide that
the cost is worthwhile, particularly if they have lots of cameras and
lenses that they loan to their members.

I hope that's helpful info.

Pine
Re: Camera insurance for conference attendees [ In reply to ]
I'd add that you could also look into renting gear locally for the event:

http://photoservice.ca/en/canon-rental.html

For a general comparison, a Canon T3i with a 17-85mm lens is $105
(Canadian) for 1 week, a 5d mkii is $300


On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 3:00 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

> For folks going to Wikimania or other conferences, I recommend looking
> into camera insurance that insures you for loss against theft in
> particular. I realize that most of us don't have $5,000 in camera gear, but
> even a $1,000 loss would be a big deal for some of us, and I'm aware of an
> incident of camera equipment being stolen after a previous Wikimedia
> conference. A mid-range camera and lens combined can easily cost over
> $1,000. You may be able to purchase camera insurance as an extension of
> your homeowners' or renters' insurance, which I was able to do at a
> surprisingly low cost. I'd encourage others to look into this, particularly
> those planning to travel to Wikimania or other conferences.
>
> One big limitation: if a camera is used for commercial purposes, you may
> need commercial camera insurance, which seems to be significantly more
> expensive than insurance that you might be able to add to your homeowners'
> or renters' policy if you use your camera only for noncommercial purposes.
> My understanding is that cameras which are owned by affiliate organizations
> would need commercial insurance, although affiliates may still decide that
> the cost is worthwhile, particularly if they have lots of cameras and
> lenses that they loan to their members.
>
> I hope that's helpful info.
>
> Pine
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimania-l mailing list
> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
>


--

*Victor Grigas*
Video Production Manager
and Storyteller
Wikimedia Foundation <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ4ba28-oGs>
vgrigas@wikimedia.org
https://donate.wikimedia.org/
Re: Camera insurance for conference attendees [ In reply to ]
Hi Victor,

I encourage people looking into lending as an alternative to purchasing
gear. However, if someone rents gear and then it goes missing or gets
damaged, that could put them in a situation that's much more expensive than
they had a planned, so I'd encourage weighing options carefully with
regards to renting vs. purchasing, and carefully reading any rental
agreement or policies for terms about loss and damage.

I'm not sure how insurance would work for rented gear. That would be worth
exploring if someone is considering gear rental.

Pine


On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 12:11 PM, Victor Grigas <vgrigas@wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> I'd add that you could also look into renting gear locally for the event:
>
> http://photoservice.ca/en/canon-rental.html
>
> For a general comparison, a Canon T3i with a 17-85mm lens is $105
> (Canadian) for 1 week, a 5d mkii is $300
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 3:00 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> For folks going to Wikimania or other conferences, I recommend looking
>> into camera insurance that insures you for loss against theft in
>> particular. I realize that most of us don't have $5,000 in camera gear, but
>> even a $1,000 loss would be a big deal for some of us, and I'm aware of an
>> incident of camera equipment being stolen after a previous Wikimedia
>> conference. A mid-range camera and lens combined can easily cost over
>> $1,000. You may be able to purchase camera insurance as an extension of
>> your homeowners' or renters' insurance, which I was able to do at a
>> surprisingly low cost. I'd encourage others to look into this, particularly
>> those planning to travel to Wikimania or other conferences.
>>
>> One big limitation: if a camera is used for commercial purposes, you may
>> need commercial camera insurance, which seems to be significantly more
>> expensive than insurance that you might be able to add to your homeowners'
>> or renters' policy if you use your camera only for noncommercial purposes.
>> My understanding is that cameras which are owned by affiliate organizations
>> would need commercial insurance, although affiliates may still decide that
>> the cost is worthwhile, particularly if they have lots of cameras and
>> lenses that they loan to their members.
>>
>> I hope that's helpful info.
>>
>> Pine
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimania-l mailing list
>> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> *Victor Grigas*
> Video Production Manager
> and Storyteller
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ4ba28-oGs>
> vgrigas@wikimedia.org
> https://donate.wikimedia.org/
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimania-l mailing list
> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
>